Most Recent Reviews

This restaurant is my favorite place to go in Portland. Home style Lebanese cooking in an informal atmosphere. The food is great, the prices are very reasonable, and its hard not to leave without leftovers. The menu is extremely vegetarian friendly with vegan and vegetarian options clearly marked. As others have indicated, the wait staff is very friendly and often make substitutions.

My favorite is the vegan meza platter. The hummus is perfect, the tabouli is always very fresh. I am not usually a big fan of falafel but I have been won over by theirs; crisp on the outside without being greasy, and soft and flavorful on the inside. The meza platter also comes with delicious fresh and hot home made pita and side dishes.

One downside is that they are CASH ONLY. The other is that they are very popular so if you come during peak hours you may have to wait, although without a doubt it is well worth it!

The vegan dishes are nicely labeled on the menu, and they even have a vegan mezza. We were going to get the vegan mezza, but the helpful waitress told us that the vegetarian mezza is vegan except for the tzatziki, and we could get this replaced with tahini sauce. This was a great choice as it included yummy spinach pies, a huge pita bread, hummus, falafels, tahini sauce, tabbouleh and something else which was very good. I really liked everything.

They make everything from scratch on the spot, which is a big plus in my book.

There is no vegan dessert though which was sad. Mostly because of this Nicholas gets an 8 and Ya Hala a 9. But Nicholas is much cheaper. But Ya Hala is fancier. So it depends on what you're looking for.

This place is indeed very popular; it's very crowded inside and when we got there at 7pm on a Tuesday night, and had to wait outside for more than half an hour. So, keep that in mind when you go there.